Some peptides sold online have not been tested on humans.

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From boosting muscle mass to improving metabolism and skin, there’s now tonnes of claims about what peptides can do on social media. Peptides are short amino acids produced by our bodies naturally, and they aren’t a new concept, they’ve been used in medicine for centuries, Insulin, used to treat diabetes being the most common one.

But the peptide wellness shot craze has led to growing amount of people buying ‘research peptides’ which are unregulated and not approved for human use. BBC’s health and wellbeing reporter, Ruth Clegg tells us all about the grey market of research peptide drugs, the health risks of taking them and why people are opting to become peptide ‘lab-rats’ despite this.

00:00 Introduction
01:23 What are peptides?
02:49 What are the claims around unregulated peptides?
04:22 Who might be using them?
05:32 Why injecting drugs has been "normalised"
06:16 Is there any evidence that they work?
07:16 What are the risks?
08:27 Are these peptides legal?
09:17 What's the advice on peptides at the moment?

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Presenter: Iqra Farooq
Producers: Emily Horler, Benita Barden and Mora Morrison
Video producer: Tim Hodges
Editor: Verity Wilde

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